Berichtnavigatie

For just over a year we have been members of the internet community www.warmshowers.org. It’s a community of worldcyclists who offer free accommodation to other cyclists. To be compared with www.couchsurfing.org, which is meant for backpackers.

Yesterday we had guests for the 3rd time. Sam and Francesca, two very nice 31-year olds, are on their way to China. They left London, where they have their home, 3 days ago and they stayed the night with us. We had a very nice evening together and made a city walk in the morning. At 12.00 they got on their machines again (with Rohloff hubs, they know what they are doing!) and took LF 13b, the long distance Schelde-Rhein cycle route with Eindhoven as the day’s destination, another warmshowers address.

They hope to reach China’s east coast (Hongkong) after 9, maybe 12 months. According to us they showed the right mentality and attitude, so we think they’ll manage. It was very nice to have them with us for this short time. Of course we will be following them on their odyssey via their blog: http://odycycle.wordpress.com , since we have the intention to ride the same route next year.

End of September 2008 we were riding in Yunnan, south China. One day we had left the Tiger Leaping Gorge and on a long climb on to the Tibetan Plateau we met Hiram. He came from the opposite direction. He is a young man from Taiwan who was making a cycling tour through the whole of China. We had a 15 minute conversation on the road side and we exhanged adresses etc.

He appeared to be a real world traveller and from then we more or less followed him on his blog and had e-mail contact now and then. He uses Google translate to make his Chinese writings readable for westerners, so if you want to try: Hiram’s blog

In May this year he started a trip round the world. He rode through China, Mongolia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and last week he entered our country, the Netherlands. He stayed with Peter and Joke in Wormer. They met him in Laos. Then, after a visit to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, he rang our bell last Sunday evening. After having stayed with us for 2 nights he left again for Brussels and Paris. After that, as his visa runs out, he has to leave the Schengen-area and he will go to Great Britain. If he can get a visa (may be difficult for a Taiwanese in Britain) he will continue to the US, if not he will come back into the mainland of Europe.

He is a very special young man, riding the world with his “cargo” bike, and camping in the wild, even in this season.

The option of reaching Köln 5 days after Strasbourg was a realistic one. We had taken into account that it might be better to take a train home there in order to be back in time for the great flower show (Bloemencorso) in Zundert, our native village. But it didn’t happen that way.We left Strasbourg in quite good weather and reached Lauterbourg in the afternoon. It’s the last litlle French town before the German border. Again we were confronted with the emptiness of the French countryside: we had to go on till this place, because in all the villages before there were no shops where we could buy food. There were some camp sites, but what do you do on a campsite when you have nothing to eat? Lauterbourg is a beautiful and well kept place, with shops! So there we camped. The next day we rode into Germany (no visible border). At a certain point we were joined by a man who rode up with us for a couple of hours. He was a “leidenschaftlicher” cyclist from Pforzheim and he was just making a day’s tour to Speyer and back, over 150 kms. He was a retired person, we had a rear wind and we talked a lot. Before we noticed we reached Speyer, where we paused together and where he turned his bike into the same direction as we had come and off he was. It was a nice and interesting encounter.
We bought our foood for the evening and started out for a camp site. Our map showed a number of them not far after Speyer. They appeared to be permanent caravan camps, not equipped for travellers. At last we found one that could accommodate us, but the facilities and the atmosphere was so bad that I consider it the worst camp site ever. Our tent was on a small field under the trees, and it started raining again. During the night there was a heavy thunderstorm and in the morning the whole place was a big pool of mud. I have to mention that our small Vaudé tent kept us dry again, good job for a over 15-year old much used trekking tent. We were glad to leave and although it rained on and off we made good progress. But we had heard the weather forecast on our small world radio. Heavy rains were expected, not only this day, but also the following days. When we reached Worms at about 13.00 it was pouring so hard that we made the decision to see if we could find a train home. How much sense is there in riding homewards in the rain for 5 days or more? The Hauptbahnhof was not far and before 14.00 we were in a train to Venlo (four changes), where we arrived just before 21.00 hrs. To make it short, we reached home at 22.30. End of our European summer tour.

Although the weather was not very good during the last weeks we look back on a very nice tour of a good 2600 kms, many times in very beautiful landscapes and cities and with many nice encounters along the way.

We spent a nice and warm day in Basel. The next morning we set off for Colmar. Which we didn’t reach, since we decided to stop At Neuf Brisach. This is a fortified little town in the Rhine valley. It was built by Vauban, whose fortresses are to be found all over France, under the rule of the Sun king (Roi soleil), Louis 14th. Compare Neuf Brisach with Naarden, Heusden, Willemstad in the Netherlands.. In almost completely original condition. But there was absolutely nothing going on, dead quiet, Tote Hose. It was a Sunday, but that doesn’t seem to be the only reason. In this whole region we have the same strange experience as I had when I cycled in the other direction 5 years ago. There is no one to be seen in the streets of the little villages and towns that we pass. At that time I wrote that I suspected that as soon as they see a stranger coming they warn each other and they all hide in their cellars. Well, nothing has changed, still not a soul to be seen, weird.We intended to visit Colmar the next morning, but it rained all the time, so we skipped this historic place. In the evening we reached Strasbourg (Strassburg, Straatsburg). The route was more interesting than the day before, when it was rather dull. The weather changed for the better during the day, so we could put up the tent and let it dry before we got in. Today we spent our day walking around, again it’s a beautiful historic place. The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is very worth while a visit.Tomorrow further north, five days or so to Köln.

A week has passed without internet, but not without rain. It was cloudy, rainy and sometimes even pouring wet. But nevertheless we have some spectacular days behind us. From Prato alla Stelvio in Italy we cycled up the Ofen pass (Passo de Fuorn). We soon entered Swizterland and stopped at Tschierv (alt. 1700). We wanted to camp, but as it started to rain very hard we decided to take a room in the local hotel. After breakfast we had to wait until it stopped pouring, but at nine we took off and reached the pass (alt. 2149) at about noon. More or less dry, dark skies but beautiful. Then down to Zernez (alt. 1375) and up again in the valley of the river Inn to Madulain (alt. 1700), a small village just before St. Moritz. We camped next to a wine barrel which was so big that we used it as our dining room. A very rainy night followed, but in the morning it was dry again. The climb to the Albula pass started immediately, very steep in the beginning. Again at about noon we reached the pass (alt 2315), again dark skies, temp 9 Celsius. The descent was marvoullous: at a certain point the railway of the Rhaetische Bahn emerged out of a tunnel and made its way down the narrow valley, using 3 winding tunnels and lots of (120 year-old) bridges. Now and then a train passed and it was astounding to see the same train go by on different sides and levels several times before it finally dissapeared completely. We camped at a small campsite at Tiefencastel, where a hestitant sun warmed us up for the rest of the afternoon.
From there we rode through a spectacular Schlucht down into the Rhine valley and Chur. A nice town, but one of the wettest camps we ever had.

From here we decided to follow this valley to the Netherlands, still some 1200 kms to go. It is possible to follow the Rhein Radweg (Rhine bicycle road) which runs along this river from the source, upwards from Chur until the North sea near Rotterdam in the Netherlands).

Next stop was Triessen in Liechtenstein, where at 19.00 hrs everything closed. It was the prince’s birthday, and really all Liechtensteiners were off to the capital for the national party. Cf. our Koninginnedag (queen’s day). Not very convenient for us at that moment, since we still had to buy our food. But there are kind people everywhere, so we were helped quickly. Then Hoechst at the Bodensee was our next stop. After that came Konstanz, very beautiful old city centre. Next stop was Schaffhausen, where we admired the Rheinfall, a waterfall where the already mighty river Rhine drops some 20 meters. A tourist hot spot, and with good reasons. From then the weather turned better and now, again 2 days later, we are enjoying a day of non-cycling in sunny and warm Basel. A city with beauty. We will, among other things, visit the Vitra Design museum, for which we’ll have to cross the border into Germany again. Tomorrow we’ll set off for Colmar, then Strassbourg and further north through the Rhine valley. In about 10 days we hope to reach home again.